WIMLIB-IMAGEX
wimlib-imagex provides most features of Microsoft's ImageX, plus additional
-features. First, the main limitations of wimlib-imagex compared to Microsoft's
-ImageX are the following:
-
- * Mounting images from a WIM file is not supported on Windows.
-
- * The LZX ("maximum") compression ratio is several percent worse than
- Microsoft's implementation.
-
-However, wimlib-imagex provides a number of advantages compared to Microsoft's
-ImageX, including but not limited to the following:
+features. Perhaps the main limitation is that mounting images from a WIM file
+is not supported on Windows. However, wimlib-imagex provides a number of
+advantages compared to Microsoft's ImageX, including but not limited to the
+following:
* wimlib-imagex provides "extract" and "update" commands that can be used to
work around the lack of mount support. These commands are very fast
uncompressed files in compressed directories, or files with alternate data
streams and multiple hard links.
+ * wimlib-imagex also supports ESD (.esd) files, except when encrypted. (These
+ use a newer version of the WIM file format.)
+
* wimlib and wimlib-imagex are free software, so you can modify and/or audit
the source code.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
-Currently there is no graphical user interface available for wimlib or
-wimlib-imagex. It's recommended to use wimlib-imagex in scripts to avoid having
-to interactively enter commands. However, note that wimlib-imagex is largely
-just a command-line front-end for wimlib, and it's possible to use wimlib's API
-in other front-ends or applications.
+It's recommended to use wimlib-imagex in scripts to avoid having to
+interactively enter commands. However, note that wimlib-imagex is largely just
+a command-line front-end for wimlib, and it's possible to use wimlib's API in
+other front-ends or applications. Currently there is no official graphical user
+interface available for wimlib or wimlib-imagex. An unofficial Windows-only
+graphical user interface that provides a thin wrapper around wimlib-imagex can
+be downloaded at
+http://reboot.pro/files/file/485-wimlib-imagex-command-line-compiler/; however,
+as of 2014-03-23 it is still under development and is only released for testing.